updated 01:39 am EDT, Thu May 23, 2013

Lumia form gets aluminum frame

Following a formal unveiling last week at a press event in London, Nokia has brought its new Lumia 925 handset to Las Vegas for CTIA's spring expo. Electronista had a chance to try out the T-Mobile edition, which pairs the company's traditional Lumia form and premium camera features with a new aluminum frame.

We liked the feel of the Lumia 900, released last year, along with many of the company's other Lumia handsets. The 925 continues this tradition, with a housing that is both comfortable to hold and nice to look at. We prefer the rounded edges and aluminum band, rather than the all-plastic build and boxy edges of the larger Verizon-bound Lumia 928.

The 925 integrates the same 8.7-megapixel PureView camera as the other 920-series handsets, combined with Carl Zeiss optics and optical image stabilization to maintain an edge over the competition. Pictures taken indoors at the press event looked great, but we didn't try any difficult shots in low light or with moving subjects. Nonetheless, we've been impressed by the photographic capabilities of other PureView-equipped phones, so we expect the 925 to perform similarly.

The Windows Phone interface is presented on a 4.5-inch AMOLED panel, which helps highlight the contrast between Metro tiles and the background, while 1280x768 resolution is high enough to ensure crisp details. There isn't much to say about the 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon chip, which is common to many Windows Phone handsets and does a fine job at most tasks.

T-Mobile will get the Lumia 925 sometime after the international version arrives in Europe and other markets next month, though a specific launch date has yet to be announced..